I am thinking of adding some lighting to my little inner city garden, which faces out onto the alley. There is a low fence that runs the width of the property, and I'd like to affix a string of rope lights to the underside of the horizontal bar -- it would shed a gentle light down onto the plants, and make a sort of glowing edge to the yard. (and distract us from the alley and the dumpsters and the rest of the junk out there!)

There is a lamp post in the yard with an electrical socket, that is about 2' away from the fence, right at the edge of the garden beds. What's the best (safest) way to plug the rope lights in? Is there some sort of waterproof cord cozy that I should use to protect where the cords plug together or plug into the post?

The lamp turns on in the evening and off in the morning -- altho not exactly corresponding to the light conditions -- if the lamp is on a timer, is the electricity on the pole affected as well? If it's not, should I just plan on turning off the lights when I turn in for the night or could I leave them run all night? Is there an easy way to rig up a (waterproof) timer for the lights?

Is this just a crazy idea?

This is the space in question, altho the little beds now run right up to the lamp post.

(I should add that this is a rental property, and the landlord doesn't want anything that will block the view of the alley -- thinks it prevents people from breaking into the cars. The landlord's brother, who lives here, claims to not know anything about the electricity and is very skeptical of any "improvements".)

We've found from experience that trying to enclose the plug in a plastic bag is a disaster -- water always gets in, and can't get out... so we use a wood or metal box, with drainage holes in the bottom. Then attach your rope lights (don't you love them? -- we have them under our deck, so the dogs can see to "go" on rainy nights0

There are two things that appealed to me about the rope lighting option. The first is that, tucked under the top stile of the fence, the light would be fairly subtle, more of a glow than a specific light source.

The second is that, depending on how closely I space the brads holding the rope to the fence, it would be pretty hard to steal. As you can see from the picture, the alleyway is pretty exposed.

I'm thinking the solar lights could be really nice on the front porch, as well. The landlord has rewired the light fixture 4-5 times in the 10 years I've lived there, and it always blows out immmediately. I don't like not having a light on the porch. If I suspended the lights from the porch ceiling, I could put the solar panel out on the front of the apartment, which gets 10-12 hours of sun a day.

Might be too much solar power!

Thanks for all the ideas!